Rating: 
Summary: Lots of good insights...
Review: Excellent practical introduction to international trade/markets. Many have lambasted this book and its author for reasons beyond his control. Former LDCs are discovering that they must relinquish certain monetary controls in order to receive investment capital from London, New York, Tokyo, Frankfurt, etc. Organizations like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank often bear the criticism. Friedman does a good job of explaining all of this, and making it very interesting as well.
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Summary: Most compelling and complete book I have read on globalizati
Review: Globalization has been a hot topic. The issue is local control vs. being subsumed by global homogenity. This book shows why the main force of globalization is really just openness. In short, the book points out that more and more people are becoming investors and that investors want to make money on their investments. If a country or company is secretive and is run in a way that benefits the people running the country or company more than the investors, investors may choose to invest in a less risky situation. However, without investment, countries and companies cannot succeed in the long run. For that reason companies and countries need to follow account practices, manage themselves correctly, respect private property rights, contracts and other such things. These are the main outside influences that are forcing countries and companies to be more the same. Each abstract point that Tom Friedman makes in this book is backed up with compelling stories based on his vast personal expeience. I remember being in Russia in 1998, right after their currency had collapsed. I talked to everyone I could about their hopes and fears and life in Russia and it really helped me sort out what I had read and give things more appropriate weights. Friedman has that kind of experience with almost every country in the world and has talked to every type of person. It what he says gives the feeling of "of course, I can relate to that, I'd feel the same way if I were in their shoes."
Rating: 
Summary: not nearly as good as Beirut to Jerusalem
Review: Friedman wrote a brilliant book before this called from Beirut to Jerusalem. He spent his whole life studying the middle east, and he lived in Lebanon and Israel for years as a reporter. He (deservedly) won fame and fortune for that book. It's revolutionary. If you haven't read it, do so. Then, the new york times brought him back to the US, and made him their globalization expert. Why? Who knows. He spoke to some economists and other experts, travelled a lot, and got really excited about his success and new job. This book, about globalization, isn't nearly as good. Oh sure, he can still Write, and the book is easy to read, full of entertaining anecdotes, and fairly thought provoking. It's when he tries to pull together his Grand Theories of Everything that it becomes embarrassing. He just doesn't seem to have a good grasp of his subject. When talking about free trade, for example, his argument goes something like this: "Well, it works and nothing else does, so you'd have to be pretty stupid to want anything else because it doesn't work. It just doesn't. So there. Now, let me tell you about that cool, cool time when I was in a small village in Kazakhstan..." Thomas himself is much more present in this book. In Beirut, he took a back seat to his description of the people and events he was seeing. In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, there is a distinct thread running through it: Look at me, look at me, how cool am I? Frankly, I think he deserves to be a tad conceited, but it affects his writing. Still, this is still an interesting book. There's nothing better out there as far as I'm aware. I just wish I hadn't read his other book first. It's sad to see someone go from brilliant to good.
Rating: 
Summary: One man's opinion
Review: If you believe that the mass media consistently does a good and unbiased job of presenting the news, you'll love this book. If you feel that government should be a major player in your life and in everyone else's life too, you'll love this book. If you believe that government is just another part of the family (or worse, a replacement for religion) and is there to do good for you and for others, you're going to love this book. The author is employed by mass media, and the taint of this background is readily apparent. He drives a (surprise) Lexus and attends all the parties with all the "right" people. Keep that in mind as you listen to his pontification, which becomes even more apparent in the audio tape (where the author is the narrator). He has one major point - the internet is changing the world - and he drones on and on and on about this issue, throwing in his own political bias as he goes along. (This gets more and more insidious as the rhetoric is heaped on.) Many of you will love this book (or audio tape) because he says what you want to hear. If you're looking for real content and break-through intellect, however, look elsewhere. Personally, I'm sorry I wasted the time and the money.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read, but with serious flaws
Review: This book is, on the whole, a pretty decent effort to describe, in layman's terms, the economic trends which are guiding our new "Global Economy," and assessing what effects, both good and bad, this will have on the world's nations and cultures. For example, he explains that globalized high tech capitalism will be THE driving economic force in the years to come, and the nations and the people of the world need to face up to it, not hide their heads in the sand. For example, he explains how nations that best adapt to (and, therefore, benefit from) this new economic system will be those who get rid of corruption in government, allow the free exchange of ideas, and so forth. He admits there are downsides to these changes, rapid modernization is destabilizing, both individually (to workers in "old tech" industries who are no longer in demand) and communally, as old, established cultures are jerked into a world in which the only constant is continual change. In short, what Friedman brings to the bulk of this book are a combination of common sense, good reportage, an a decent effort at fairness and balance. There are, of course, a number of nits to pick. He uses a series of terms to explain various concepts he is trying to get across, expressions like "The Electronic Herd," "The Golden Straitjacket," and so forth. Initially, these are helpful in that they convey ideas without exposing the reader to a bunch of complicated economic-ese. However, it does not take long for these to become cliched and quite tiresome. It's as if Friedman, so pleased with his own cleverness in coining these terms, has fallen in love with the sound of his own wittiness. Worse, in many respects, his insights are rather shallow. While it is nice that he thinks China will soon become much like America and Western Europe in terms of prosperity and economic savvy, he entirely neglects to look at the political dimension, namely, the country is still very much a political dictatorship. And dictators tend not to care much about Lexuses or olive trees, except to exploit both to further secure their own power. But by far the worst part of the book is the end. This is where the "reasonable" Friedman takes a sabbatical, and the arrogant demagogue fills the void. He puts aside his balance and fairness and starts spewing partisan diatribes against everything from the NRA to Congressmen who prefer to take seriously their jobs as public servants by not wasting the taxpayers money on overseas "fact finding" junkets. He sneers at the latter as unsophisticated rubes who don't want to take the effort to learn about the world. It obviously never occurred to Friedman that a lot of these politicians were elected in 1994 precisely because the voters were sick of the sort of arrogance in which Congressmen and other government officials treated the taxpayers money as their personal ticket to the high life, and that many of those "fact finding" trips were little more than excuses to take exotic vacations on the public dime. And he all but accuses the NRA of being co-conspirators in the Columbine massacre. Of course, what would Friedman, who hobnobs with prime ministers and Cabinet members, know about the typical NRA member, who is probably a working class duck hunter or trap shooter? Anyway - note to Mr. Friedman: Next time you write a book, stick to the facts, and save the political editorializing for private drinking sessions between you and your elitist friends. The rest of us don't want to read this garbage.
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Summary: Olive trees, Lexus, Globalization...all in one package
Review: Tom Friedman's book is required reading in my MBA International Business class. I enjoyed his history of globalization because it was more far reaching than any other book I have read. Friedman goes all the way back to Eden and the story of Cain & Abel when he talks about globalization. My favorite chapter was #2 because of the photo of the Jewish man holding his cellular phone at the Western Wall so his relative in France can pray. Friedman's background as a NY Times journalist also gives the book a more newsworthy feel. I also like the dichotomy of the title (Lexus sedans and Olive trees indeed).
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Summary: Brilliant, if 100 pages too long
Review: For anyone who lacks an economics degree, Friedman does an excellent job of explaining what globalization is, what it means as well as both its potential downsides and upsides. In typically subdued New York Times verbiage, Friedman's book uses illustrative stories collected from his travels as a New York Times columnist to illustrate what is happening in our common world. Friedman, an ardent proponent of globalization, manages to grant considerable space to globalization's detractors and gives plenty of warning as to the impending overall bias of his book towards the benefits of the globalization trend. It reads, in many ways, like an extended version of an opinion column and makes no bones about the fact the book is as much fact as it is the author's take on things. While Friedman's own aerrogance and constant grandstanding become annoying at times, his experiences and honesty bring the complex globalization issue down to a level where anyone can understand the here and now. It is a wonderfully useful book and a pleasureable read - although the overly verbose and redundant stylings of the obviously self-engrossed author tack on about 100 needless pages.
Rating:
Summary: Too much "Lexus"; Too little "Olive Tree"
Review: Something has happened to T. Friedman between writing "From Beirut..." and writing this book. In the past, he was an amazing journalist, with well-deserved awards. Now, I find something has infected him and I don't mean the internet or globalization. He has lost his independence. Not that this isn't an original book--it is. But it is also an establishment book that could only have been written by someone in the monied, elite class. Nothing wrong with that group except that they can't see from the Under side, so the opposite of Friedman's humanity in the past. He loses the human touch and hobnobs with too many heads of State and Heads of Corporations. Too bad that genius, which he possesses, necessarily goes astray in this society. He's influential to the same degree that he's lost some critical capacity. I recommend reading this book with above words in mind.
Rating:
Summary: You don't need an economics degree to read this
Review: This book is billed as a "bird's eye view" of globalisation. It was written by a journalist and not an economist so there are no tricky formulas, charts or graphs that need to be analysed. Anyone can read it. If you want more depth you can go to other sources. The book makes the case that since the collapse of the Cold War, Globalisation is the dominant system that colours world affairs. How do we balance our pursuit of wealth and increase our standard of living (the Lexus) while protecting our culture and traditions (the olive tree)? People who want to examine that question need to read this book. It certainly crystalised many things for me -- trends I see in today's world but until now hadn't been able to explain clearly. The book helped me connect a few dots and got me thinking. I highly recommend it. My only complaint is that the author does seem to invent a new catch phrase every chapter. It gets a bit much after a while. I think most readers can handle complex ideas without reducing them to soundbites. I also see that most people who criticise this book do so because it doesn't mesh with their political slant. In my view, those readers have failed to really understand all the ideas in the book. As the book unashamedly points out from the first chapter -- you may not like globalisation but people who fight it can not provide any other alternative ideology that actually works (ie: raises standards of living, is democratic, etc etc). Globalisation is here and that's a fact. When someone provides an alternate ideology that actually works, then you can talk about an alternate way of doing things. For now, this book can help you surf the wave to get what you want out of globalisation. It can not only help you surf the wave, but can help you keep your olive tree from being washed out to sea. Even if your political slant finds globalisation abhorrent, read it for that fact alone. For example, there are many ideas showing how you can make social activism work under this new system. Anyone who reads this book with an open mind will have their eyes opened. It will certainly get you thinking about the world today and how you want to live in it.
Rating: 
Summary: One moment please!
Review: The inherent problem with this book is the underlying assumption which multinationals have successfully brainwashed into the Western psyche that 'progress' and a 'better lifestyle' is having all the trappings of western society. But how many of us can honestly say that bigger houses, more toys, etc has actually led to the promises of greater happiness, more time, less stress, etc. An honest reflection on this question might be quite revealing. And having seen the impact of Western commercialism on indigenous peoples, where they move from a subsistence utopia to having to depend on a wage packet, the results are equally instructive. We need to start with these questions. Unfortunately this book doesn't.
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